


A Love like Home

by CorruptLimerence



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Angst, Background Edward and Winry, Drabble Fic, Drabbles, F/M, Pining, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, We honestly all needed more closure from that anime, action couple, they would die for each other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-28
Updated: 2017-06-28
Packaged: 2018-11-20 01:15:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11325621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CorruptLimerence/pseuds/CorruptLimerence
Summary: A Drabble Fic detailing the clandestine relationship of Roy Mustang and Riza Hawkeye that FOR SURE went on behind the scenes of Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood. Their life in times detail their meetings, sacrifice, devotion, and a love shrouded in blood, smoke, and gunfire.





	A Love like Home

**Author's Note:**

> I was one of those people that got on the bandwagon for this show fairly late in the game. FMA:B had ended years before I had watched this, and I am still shocked at it being the best anime I have ever laid eyes on. But these two, THESE TWO, they needed their love to be recognized in one form or another. And that ending scene with Roy's mustache left me with no closure, so I decided to write it!

#1.  
Roy met her when they were both young and naïve. He hadn’t quite grown into his limbs then and Riza still wore her hair short. He didn’t know Flame Alchemy yet and Riza still lived in a quiet fear of her father. 

It was them before the war, them before the handguns and the fire. It was them naïve and smitten.

And looking back on it now and growing up with Madame Christmas and her workers should have made Roy Mustang more adept with flirting. Even he admits to her in private that it was a train wreck and a half. 

Being so isolated didn’t make her receptive whatsoever.

“It’s a miracle we got this far, Lieutenant?” Roy would tease her when the rest of the team asks how the two met. 

“Absolutely, sir.” Riza smirks.

 

#2.  
Blood. So much blood. Days of it with brief periods of rest between large chunks of carnage. Roy barely sees anything else but red. But he hears everything, fire is the slowest way to go. He can hear it when the men, women and children don’t stop screaming until their hearts are finally scorched. 

And he chose this. He is numb with guilt, and can no longer feel.

A private with blonde hair and piercing eyes approaches him and Hughes in one of those brief rests between slaughter. His breath catches.

“Do you remember me, sir?” She asks. Of course he does. 

Not her, please not her. Of all things to be destroyed by this war, not her. Roy didn’t want her plagued with night terrors or the memory of all the dead. Nothing was sacred, and this war had desecrated her.

It’s the first time they don’t need words. A swell of feeling in the longing glance mixed with sorrow opens up in the space between. 

 

#3.  
No one ever hears laugher in the trenches or in the camps. The Ishvallen War of Extermination was only populated by Kimblee`s deranged laughter. Never a giggle or a chortle.

Mustang has only ever heard Lieutenant Hawkeye burst out laughter five times during their entire acquaintance. He was proud to be behind four of those times. 

And one of those times was during the War of Extermination, huddled around a campfire. Tears came to Riza`s eyes, she didn`t think she could laugh this hard, especially when her kill count sat at sixty-three that day. She doubled over, clutching her ribs and used Roy`s shoulder to brace herself. 

Hughes was startled out of his tent to check who had made that noise. He saw Roy doing something silly to make her laugh, maybe an imitation of Kimblee? Hughes smiled and sank back into his cot. 

Riza was more grateful for this laughter with him than anything else he had given her.

 

#4.  
Riza laughed herself senseless the first time Roy was caught with wet gloves during a downpour. Bewildered and soaked he dumbly kept snapping his fingers. 

After the Lieutenant caught her breath she took his gloves and handed him two hand guns.

 

#5.  
Riza slips off her top and faces the wall while wrapping her forearms around her chest.

“I want you to burn it off of me.”

Roy looks at her bare back. Maroon notes are scrawled all over her, across her shoulder blades, down the tendons of her back, right past the hem of her skirt. He had really hoped the first time she would take her top off wouldn’t involve fire and the tragedy that was their past and present in Flame Alchemy. 

“I-“ Roy starts. He couldn’t bring himself to hurt her. Never. 

“Please.” Riza doesn’t say much more. He knows what she is thinking. She never wants anyone else to use Flame Alchemy, she wants him to be the last one. She was asking him to free her.

He can do it, for her.

“I’m sorry…” Mustang’s voice has a note of finality to it. Riza braces herself when she hears the snap of his fingers. 

 

#6.  
Lieutenant is what he has always called her. So when he whispers her name to her Riza can’t help but taking in a steadying breath while unravelling, string by wonderful string.

 

#7.  
Roy bolts upright in bed, sweat coating the front of his chest and brow. His breaths were heaved through heavy lungs, fear coating his inside in a cold slick. 

She was dead. Her skin was ice, she didn’t have a pulse and there was enough blood to coat the both of them. Not for the first time in his dreams, his lips met hers. He pushed two breaths into her lungs and tried to resuscitate her heart. Nothing. No pulse, no breath, nothing.

Without thinking, the Colonel stumbled out of bed. His apartment was dark. His toes were stubbed several times before he got to the telephone. 

His rotary phone worked at a glacial pace, the numbers keyed in too slow. The time between dial tones were hours. 

“Pick up, pick up, pick up.” Mustang chanted under his breath. The receiver clicked on.

“Riza!” Roy almost yelled it. 

“Colonel?” the Lieutenant’s tired voice picked up in worry. “Are you okay?” A cry almost jumped from his mouth. She was alive, she wasn’t dead, she was in her apartment, probably cuddling with Black Hayate.

“I’m fine, are you okay?” Roy demanded, almost manic. No more needed to be said, Riza knew what had happened.

“Yes, sir. You are not dreaming, this is all real, I am okay.” Riza said carefully, Roy’s voice shook on the receiver.

“Thank you, Lieutenant.” He managed.

“Please take a shower to clear you head, sir. I am heading over now.” Riza said.

He put down the receiver and headed for the bathroom. 

The scorch of the hot water was enough to bring him back to earth.

 

#8.  
Riza gets night terrors too. And they are especially bad. She dreams that Roy gets accidentally caught in her crosshairs and she shoots him down. She never misses, and she never fails to cry out in her sleep.

Other times its alchemists that take him down, homunculi, or soldiers, and she is too late, she couldn’t protect him in time. She fails her duty and sees him buried. 

She will wake up to Hayate’s barks, trying to get her to stop her nightmares. Her hair will be matted in sweat, and she swears she can smell blood somewhere.

The Lieutenant tries not to let it get to her, so she will head to the firing range or walk her dog. She doesn’t want to tell Roy.  
But he always knows, he looks at her and its like he can see what she dreamt. And when their fellow soldiers leave on break his warm hands clasp around her shoulder to stop her. 

He knows her well enough that she won’t be coddled. Instead she will find flowers at her apartment, extra vacation days in her file, or her paperwork done. 

He’ll confront her about it, put his forehead to hers.

“I’m here Lieutenant, I’m always here. Tell me.” 

Riza takes a deep breath. 

Through sharing their pain, they find solace.

 

#9.  
“Do you think the Colonel has a crush on the lieutenant?” Edward stares back lazily at the platform when he asks this question. The Colonel sent him a grumpy stare and a warning before the train departed. His lieutenant whispered something in his ear his expression softened, almost tender. It made Ed want to gag a little.

“Oh Ed.” Alphonse’s metallic laughing was tinged with a little bit of condescension.

“What’s so funny?” Ed nearly demanded.

“Does the Colonel have a crush on his lieutenant?” Alphonse repeated. “Do we want to get our bodies back?”

“I get it, Al.”

 

#10.  
Lieutenant Hawkeye is a bastion of professionalism. So when she says his name, its safe in her mouth, and it makes him grin like a little boy. 

 

#11.  
When Roy burns Lust to death in front of her-for her- she feels like a bit of her trapped anger and rage goes with him. 

Her anger and despair at the thought of loosing the Colonel gets funnelled into every snap. Every lick of flame is a time she bit her tongue or held her trigger finger steady. 

Watching Roy scream as his fingers snapped felt justified, ever single bit of agony out of Lust, every bit of sizzling flesh. 

In her world, anger was a weakness, but Roy made it a power. And where she couldn’t yell or scream, Roy took that burden and released it in his fingers. 

 

#12.  
“You cried for me Lieutenant?” Roy tries to tease from his hospital bed, resting his face in his palms teasingly. The Lieutenant finds it a little bit crasser than the Colonel does.

“With all due respect sir, you’re still resting from your injuries. It would be very easy to dump some water on you right now.” Riza squints.

“I must admit Lieutenant, I’m touched.” Roy liked being the object of her worry, or thoughts in general. “I kind of like this side of you. Tender, soft, we should make a habit of this.”

“That’s rich sir, considering you burnt a homunculus alive for me.” Riza grinned putting Roy into a stupor, his face heating up as if he were still seventeen. He turned away.

“But sir, don’t turn away, I so rarely get to see this side of you.” She teased right back.

“You know I’m not actually asleep anymore, right?” Havoc blurted out turning both of them beet red. 

 

#13.  
“How else can you protect Winry? You’re in love with her, aren’t you?” Riza asked Fullmetal and he choked on his tea.

She could only think for such a bright perceptive boy he was certainly ignorant of his own feelings.

“Look who’s talking Lieutenant? Should I bring up the Colonel?” Edward volleyed back.

She was opened mouthed for a second, only to regain her battle composure in a blink of an eye. 

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Riza polished her gun with more enthusiasm, praying she wasn’t being too transparent. 

Fullmetal snorted.

 

#14.  
Lieutenant Hawkeye had been reassigned. To King Bradley. That bastard had known to take the lieutenant from him, his lieutenant, his queen piece. 

After the tumult and chaos of Central, Roy found his good bottle of whiskey. He downed one glass in one shot and poured himself another.

To put a legendary sharp shooter under the duty of tea and schedules was demeaning. But hadn’t she done that for him? Not to mention smacking him out of harms way when it rained? The Colonel knew she would take the mantel with dignity and grace.

He could have sent her to the farthest reaches of Xing, but no, he was going to force Roy to watch her dote on him, the king, and homunculi. He was going to pluck Riza and attach her to him.

He snorted to himself, to think even Furher Bradley knew they couldn’t bare to be separated. 

 

#15.  
Lieutenant Hawkeye watched Roy from across the room with utter shock paining her face, her pool of blood ebbing outwards. 

Colonel Mustang had his arms grappled above his head, fingers separated, thinking that he couldn’t lose her. Even if he died, he couldn’t lose her. He didn’t remember a life before her, and he couldn’t imagine one without her. 

That is why he could not kill Envy, even though his fingers itched and he felt his anticipation for burnt flesh. She would do away with herself if he did. And he could never loose her. 

And Envy was a long time owed treat. He even revelled in the glory that they could heal themselves. It meant he could burn them alive over and over again.

Fear squeezed his innards until he thought he might vomit. All he had to do was unsuccessfully transmute a person to open the gate of truth. 

He could perform the ultimate sin, what was one more amongst the many he had already committed? One more for her.

Riza cringed and Roy responded immediately. The lightest of frowns was on her face, despite the agony she was in. 

I’m going to shoot you if you try! Don’t you dare Colonel.

Her look practically screamed it. Roy could take orders, especially from Riza. 

 

#16.  
Warmth. And Smoke. Riza has always associated the Colonel with those things. And when she wakes up in the middle of a transmutation circle she feels arms around her caked in smoke and warm all over. Safe. And Sound. 

 

 

#17.  
Riza bites the inside of her cheek as the Colonel’s fingers curve to her inner thigh, skin directly on skin. His other hands slithers under her chin and lifts. He places a hungry kiss on her lips causing a tremble through her. At this Roy stops and smirks at her. Her set her on fire, and not in the same way he had done for Lust. 

 

#18.  
He still thinks about his brief period being blind. When his sight was restored with the philosopher’s stone the light from the room blinded him. Finally peeking through his lashes a silhouette craned over him. Blonde and lean. He knew it was Riza before his sight adjusted to the room and saw she was crying. His heart soared at the very sight of her.

Fullmetal might reproach him about using a philosopher stone crafted from the Ishvallen dead. 

It’s worth it. He thought selfishly.

“Welcome back Colonel.” The lieutenant smiled.

 

#19.  
“I’m sorry” he murmurs into the thin wire of white around her neck where the knife had cut her open. His lips grazed the scar and she shivered. His breath was hot on her. Those moments had been the most terrifying in his entire life and his fingers dug into her hips. “I’m sorry, Riza.”

“If you say I’m sorry again I’m going to shoot you.” Riza chuckled, and tried not to think of what would happened to Roy if she had died that day.

 

#20.  
Words are clumsy things in a bond that has always existed in perfect silence. So when Roy paces the length of his apartment trying to think about how find the right words for Riza it makes him shake. 

He never shook when he slaughtered the innocent in The War of Extermination. The Flame Alchemist had to train himself out of it, what with the flames and horrible misfires. And after all he had been through with her, Riza deserved far better than a misfire of broken words and jumbled syllables.

He had always been a little impulsive; at least Riza chastised him for it, so he decided he would figure it out when he got there. With his hand constantly checking his breast pocket he headed to her apartment. 

Horrifyingly, he had no words when Riza stood before him. Appalled with himself his fingers dove into his breast pocket, turning as red as a tomato. Colonel, Flame Alchemist, and occasional dweeb got down on one knee for Riza holding out a ring.

His mouth opened to say something, not sure what, when Riza smiled.

“Do you even have to ask?”

 

#21.  
When they do get married, it’s a small ceremony, one priest with only Fullmetal and his brother there as witnesses. The Colonel was their supervising officer, so before Riza walks down the aisle he threatens to burn the pipsqueak alive if he says anything. 

“I don’t even care that you have your bodies back, burnt alive! Understand?” 

“Geez, Colonel.” Edwards breathes.

Colonel Mustang and First Lieutenant Hawkeye both agreed they wouldn’t tell anyone about their relationship. Not when he was so close to becoming Furher. Riza would never take that from him, and they would never take their vision from others, not when there was still so much to atone for.

But when the Colonel saw his lieutenant across from him he forgot what he had to atone for. If two people could love each other as much as they did, they could live with their horrors.

It was enough. More than enough. Maybe more than they deserved.

It was all they had ever truly wanted.

 

#22.  
They lay panting with each other, chemistry still popping and bubbling where their feverish skin met. Her hair, usually kept up neatly was splayed over both of them. 

Whenever they did this his nose buried in her hair, breathing in gunpowder and shampoo. His fingers absentmindedly went to her back, always tracing her scars and tattoos. She tried not to arch her back for the thousandth time, and failed.

Somewhere there was a note of guilt in the Colonel’s fingers over the scar tissue on her back. 

After a long moment, they rolled over and resumed their fun.

 

#23.  
“The Colonel and the Lieutenant were pretty close today, wouldn’t you say, Ed?” Winry gabbed as she put away a tray of tea. 

A car outside could be heard driving in the opposite direction. Mustang, Hawkeye, Havoc, and even Fury came to visit Risembool. It had been a lovely day, what with all of Ed’s limbs restored, Mustang with his sight and Al back in his body. The Colonel was up for promotion soon and so was the Lieutenant. She was also positive that she had seen the two had their hands entwined underneath the table. 

“What are you saying, Winry? Don’t be crazy, it’s not like they’re married or anything?” Ed obnoxiously professed. 

Winry beamed ear to ear.

“Roy and Riza were married?!” Winry wanted to know everything, if she hadn’t heard by now it was a secret, and for them, by god she would keep it for them. 

Her fiancé was shocked. “Don’t be stupid, Ed! I would have found out eventually! It’s sickeningly obvious!”

 

#24.  
They aren’t perfect. 

Colonel Mustang sometimes wishes that she would be less cold and professional, that she would emote more instead of relying on their unspoken bond. Maybe he didn’t want things unsaid? And maybe it bothered him that she kept silent and orderly all the time.

Lieutenant Hawkeye wishes he wouldn’t flirt so stupidly with other women. She knows he wouldn’t stray from her. But when he does flirt hap hazard she wonders. He grins and compliments other women, whether it be part of his cover or an informant. What if he leaves her? What if…?

 

#25.  
Riza smiles to herself, Roy ears are red as he inhaled sharply. He hated how easily he yielded to her touch, all she had to do was place a kiss where his jaw met his earlobe. Her fingers run down to the cauterized scar at his side, pressing into the flesh.

“Dammit, Hawkeye.” Roy breathed while stringing his fingers through her hair. She had always known his weak spots.

“What are you going to do about it, Colonel? Court martial me?” Riza grinned. 

 

#26.  
“Hughes would be proud of you.” The lieutenant said to him in a hushed tone as the deafening crowd bellow chanted for their newly crowned Fuhrer.

“Thank you, lieutenant, for everything.” Roy said in earnest. He had been king for a few minutes but she had always been his queen. 

 

#27.  
Their subordinates have learnt not to say anything, they know better than to speak against their king and Fuhrer. But when Fuhrer Mustang and his first in command Hawkeye give each other affectionate looks, their soldiers know to turn their attention away. 

 

#28.  
They won’t make it out. It’s another mission from the military in central and this time it looks like they may not live to boast about it or even complete the paper work. They have only just left the War of Extermination to die in a Church. 

The bar holding the door together bands and bends, screams and shouts get through but not the mercenaries on the other side. Bodies lined the pews of the Church and the floor became slick with blood. Havoc and Hawkeye were reloading behind Colonel Mustang.

Fear was something he lived with but now they were nothing but pinned in a corner, behind an altar. Death was in the air and it was crawling closer. Fury tried to control his breathing as the rest of the team got ready to fight back to back. 

Another bang from the door made them all jump. The team had learnt to curb their terror but they look to each other for comfort. Hawkeye counted several machine guns outside and she was down to her last cartridge. 

“Hold steady, we are getting out of here alive.” He said to Fury who breathed in and out at an alarming rate. But he didn’t believe himself. 

The Colonel’s dark eyes fell on Riza and his heart was seized in a cold vice grip. He never got to tell her how he felt. He didn’t know where they might have gone, or to what ends, but he wanted her to know that he would have done anything for her. He knew the moment he saw Riza in her Father’s house. A sob almost rattled through his ribs. 

Riza caught his eyes and she almost said something. Roy wanted her to say something, anything. 

Riza didn’t know if she was going to die but she too had too much to say to her commanding officer. 

The two crouched across from each other both wanting to express affection with their boots wet with blood and gunpowder in her lungs. 

A breath whistled through Mustang when large thud knocked out some of the last of the hinges on the door. 

Mustang’s eyes turned to Riza and only Riza and everything melted away but her.

“Are you with me?” He said. I love you. His expression was pleading, imploring, tender and full of adoration. 

Riza’s erratic breath held, almost hearing the I love you in his face and in his call to arms.

“Until whatever end, sir.” She whispered. I love you too.  
Tears almost filled Mustang’s eyes, he couldn’t cry, Riza would only laugh and remind him he was no good in the rain. They smiled at each other, grim, driven by fear and tempered by something sweeter. 

The door of the church blew clean off its hinges, gunfire singing through wood benches and stained glass. 

In perfect synchronicity Mustang and Hawkeye unfolded from their hiding spots and dove headlong into battle.


End file.
